Looking back - 5 years ago

 
5 years ago (January 2016) – I raced four times during this month, twice on the road and twice on the indoor track.  I kicked off with the Millennium mile, a downhill (87’) mile in Londonderry NH.  My goal was to break 5 minutes.  I latched onto Kara Haas who tends to start faster than me and she basically dragged me through a 38^th place 4:57.3 (I passed her in the last ¼ mile, she was top F40+ in 4:59). 
Millennium mile 50+
1 Mark Hecox                  4:45.9
2 Dave Dunham              4:57.3
3 Dave Audet                  5:18.4
 
The next day (01/02/16) I headed to B.U. for the indoor mini-meet series. The meet attracts many looking for the rare opportunity to get in some work on the indoor track.  I signed up for the 3,000 meters and found myself in the fourth or fifth heat.  With seeding done based on expected finish time you can typically find many to run with UNLESS you happen to be either the first or last in a heat when you may end up alone.  Such was (sort of) the case for me as I was alone in second place with the leader at least 10 seconds ahead by 800 meters in.  I managed to run pretty even 41 second laps and was pleased to take 2^nd in 10:13.7 which would be a little under 11 minutes for 2 miles. 

I didn’t race again until 01/23/16 when I visited Tewksbury for the popular GLRR Fudgsicle series 5k.  I did not feel good but stayed with the top runner through halfway, then just got buried in the second half losing by 30 seconds in 18:37. 
Fudgcicle 5k
1 Will Swenson    M44      18:07
2 Dave Dunham  M51      18:37
3 Jason Bui         M35      18:50
4 Eric Beauchesne M45     19:31
 
I finished out the month (01/31/16) at the USATF NE/Northeast masters indoor track championships in Providence.  I again managed some very even splits taking 6^th place overall and 2^nd in the 50+ (Danny V beat me by 14 seconds) with a 17:26.1
1 16:33.0 Chris Magill                   M43      BAA
2 16:37.1 Doug McLucas               M45      BAA
3 17:10.7 Ryan Davenport             M41      BAA
4 17:12.7 Dan Verrington              M53      CMS
5 17:24.9 Joe O’Leary                  M48      SRR
6 17:26.1 Dave Dunham               M51      CMS